Neighbor Aid 2014 raised $57,056, and we are grateful for every dollar and every person who thought of us and the folks we serve during this critical time of year.
ShareNet services are supported primarily by this annual fundraiser. We will need every dollar to continue services that have grown to meet the need we are still facing in our community.
Donations were down over previous years. In fact, it is the second lowest total since Neighbor Aid began in 2008.
Inevitably, people will ask us if we’re disappointed by the lower total. Heck, no! How in the world could you consider nearly $60,000 as anything but a great success made by a compassionate community who care a lot about people who are suffering?
Even if down over previous years, the result is reason to celebrate: both the amount of services it will fund and the generosity of our community. Donations are down, but spirits are high.
The other side of the picture is that donation of goods to our holiday distribution was up, as well as donated labor for the year. Our collection sites at 12 local businesses netted great donations, not only of food, but also toys for our Christmas Gift Shop, which made a very Merry Christmas for more than 180 kids.
Benchmark Automotive, Kingston Food Market, Columbia Bank, Oak Table Cafe/Firehouse Theatre, Kingston Lumber, and Wolfle Elementary School netted the largest amount of donations to the gift shop. Way to go to all the participating businesses.
Laureen Davis and Kandi Delos Santos did an incredible job chairing the gift shop event. They had many helpers in the community, including Bill Nolan and Lee Demmert who delivered the boxes to the collection sites and had the big job of transporting the goods back to the event site. Thanks to all the Bayside Community Church volunteers who helped set up and host the event. And we must thank Barbara Brumagin, who left our board last year, but provided the blueprint for this event.
Sometimes, when economic indicators are up, the perceived need goes down. We hear a lot about recovery from the recession, but you wouldn’t know it from the clients filling our waiting room. Hunger and food insecurity have become less prominent in national news, and there may be folks who consider the problem on its way to being solved; yet ShareNet’s individual service instances jumped to 14,441 in 2014, nearly 2,000 more than 2013.
After a comparatively stable 2013, the number of local residents seeking services has escalated again. Rural/suburban areas have not recovered as well from the recession, and clearly our community remains harder hit than urban centers, with many people still not working; not working full-time; or not working at a wage that will buy enough food for the home.
When we totaled volunteer hours worked at ShareNet for 2014, it was a staggering 8,277 — the equivalent of about four full-time paid positions in volunteer labor and nearly 1,000 more hours than in 2013. It makes sense, because more service requires more volunteer hours. Overwhelmingly, these volunteers are seniors who have retired from jobs but not from service.
This incredible level of volunteer support is a community partnership in itself, with many retired folks finding their post-career niche in important service to their community.
Our second largest volunteer category after retirees are people looking for work, between jobs, who aren’t the kind to remain idle at home.
We are intensely grateful for this level of support, and yet the fact is we never have enough volunteers for all the tasks at ShareNet. That’s not an indication of lack of volunteer support, but rather of just how much there is to do at ShareNet, and to what degree programs are always evolving and expanding.
Look for a ShareNet representative in the community soon, who will be taking volunteer recruitment to a new level.
Thank you to a very wonderful and generous community.
— Mark Ince is executive director of ShareNet. He can be reached by calling 360-297-2266.
